Hope this is the right place to post this question.I need to free up some disk space and am considering the "compressed drive" option in XP. Any thoughts from anyone regarding this idea - will I see a noticeable degradation of FS2004 running in this envoirnment? I sure don't want to slow down loading and/or flying by compressing the files on the drive. Feedback appreciated.

Well I have only the whole FS2004 folder on compressed rather then the whole c-drive, and I havent seen anything that degrades the speed or quality of the game. Also add to that, that the folder in size is now heavily decreased saving me alot of HD space also. Win/win situation if you ask me :)True space on HD: 49 GBWith compression: 32 GBIf you decide to try it and dont like it, you can always revert back to normal state of things

While compressed files take less time to access from the hard drive, they then have to go through a decompression algorithm--which means cpu cycles otherwise available for MSFS will now be used for decompressing the data. Likely this will degrade performance, but how much I can't say.Another way to free up disk space is to go on an aircraft "purge". I found by just deleting those liveries that I flew once or twice just to look at, I gained almost 3 Gigs. Depends on how many aircraft you have, but it's worth considering.-JohnEdit: After seeing Cargomun's reply, another thing to try is to compress just your aircraft folder--that's where most of my MSFS space is used.

Actually, compressing just the AI aircraft in my aircraft folder was what I tried doing first since I had so many and of course couldnt just delete any :)I didnt notice any difference in how textures were loading - probably the HD access issue you mentioned.Then felt more daring, I moved on to the whole aircraft folder (them Posky planes takes ALOT of space with 32bit textures) and then took the whole FS folder after a while.So yes, try out few folders at a time see if you can spot a difference positive or negative :)

Aircraft and their related data files compress very well. My "Aircraft" folder was reduced from 5.20GB to 2.1GB by using compression. Absolutely no performance hit, in fact some aircraft using 32-bit textures seem to load a little quicker.Scenery already uses compression (the .bgl files are packed somewhat and the textures are usually DXTC-compressed) so another compression algorithm usually doesn't do much good.I would not recommend compressing the entire drive. Instead, find folders like the Aircraft folder, that compress well. Other examples are folders containing a lot of images (especially .bmp), documents etc. I also compress the My Documents folder and the Desktop folder (I tend to have a lot of junk files on the desktop).Also it's important to defrag after compressing. All compressed files change size and position on the disk after compression which reduces performance.

Although the CPU cycle argument is probably true as there must be a `cost` to decompressing files before use in terms of computing power, the fact is that a compressed directory utilises less phyiscal space on a hard drive and therefore the read/write head can reach the desired location quicker - whether this offsets the algorithm only experimentation can decide.FWIW I also have the aircraft folder compressed. But then I also have the scenery folder on a separate Hard Drive too! Can't say I notice any real difference if the whole FS folder is compressed, but it can't do any harm to experiment and it's easily reversible!Allcott

>whether this offsets the algorithm only experimentation can decide.http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2betateam.jpg

Hi,I have FS2004 compressed since a year and FS loads quicker, at least on my system.It is true that CPU cycles are necessary to decompress the files, but it seems to be compensated by less disk activity.Anyway on my system it works fine.

I consider myself an 'expert' on the topic since I went through the whole cycle - first compressing then uncompressing then compressing again. I did it for the WHOLE D drive where my FS9 (and all its utilities) are installed. In between I was very carefully measuring preformance in FS9 - not only fps but also things like stutter, blurry terrain, etc. I used number of fixed scenarios to be as objective as possible. As someone said it is very important to defrag after you compressed or decompressed. I found absolutely no difference in performance when I had the drive compressed. So I keep it compressed since you save about 15% of space with no price to pay.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

To all:Compressed drives/folders tend to get fragmented after the compression, so I recommend a full defrag after compressing, preferably with PerfectDisk or Diskeeper.

------------------------------------------------------------------------Another way to free up disk space is to go on an aircraft "purge". I found by just deleting those liveries that I flew once or twice just to look at, I gained almost 3 Gigs. Depends on how many aircraft you have, but it's worth considering.------------------------------------------------------------------------That is an excellent idea and is totally true! I went on a download orgy snagging every airline colour for every jet I have and now my FS9 is bloated.And its true....out of the gobs of liveries for A320s that I have...so far Ive used about 4 of them. Time for da purge!....burning them to CD first of course..hee hee :)

Thanks to all who responded. I have followed the advice and I too see now noticeable difference. I compressed the entire FS9 foler and subs and then defragmented (I use diskkeeper) and all seems well - picked up over 5 gig of drive space!